Independence

As I'm writing this, Eli is sleeping in his own crib! Lately I've literally been fighting him to go to sleep. He'll constantly try to roll over and crawl away, or he will want to rub his eyes like a mad man, which only makes him scream louder. He is the master of sleep fighting. I have to basically hold his hands down till he falls asleep. Oh, and if I decide to let go of his hands too early, it's pretty much the end of the world.
He's also getting pretty darn big, and my twin size bed just isn't doing the both of us justice. I want him to be able to sleep on his own, with no problem.
So... Tonight I did our normal Bath, Book, Bed routine. I rocked him a little and laid him down in his crib. The water works started pouring  and I was starting to feel like this would never work. I sat down beside his crib, slid my arm between the bars to gently place my hand on his chest so he doesn't try to crawl away, and waited.
I came to the conclusion that if i gave him eye contact, I was just fueling the fire. So I continued to look at the ground, making sure I was still in his sight. After 5 minutes he stopped crying and started playing with his toes. He rubbed the blanket some, held on to the crib bars, babbled a bit, then rolled onto his tummy and fell asleep. I was in shock. Did he just sooth himself to sleep? WHAAAAAT?! I'm so excited ya'll. If I keep this up for 3 more days, maybe (Hope to god) he'll be an independent sleeper!